Mariners reward LeBlanc with contract extension

The Mariners signed Wade LeBlanc to a contract extension before his start Tuesday, then he went out and pitched like he deserved it. LeBlanc allowed just three hits, one walk and one run over seven innings of the Mariners' 4-1 win.(Photo: Stephen Brashear, AP)

SEATTLE -- Wade LeBlanc was jobless entering the final week of spring training. The New York Yankees cut him from a minor league contract.

Now?

He’s stabilized the Seattle Mariners’ rotation – for the second time in three seasons – and the 33-year-old left-hander agreed with the Mariners on a one-year contract extension on Tuesday with club options through 2022.

ESPN's Jerry Crasnick reported the deal will pay LeBlanc a base salary of $2.75 million in 2019 and the payout increases to $4.75 million with performance bonuses based on how many innings he pitches. The deal could max out at $32 million with performance bonuses.

LeBlanc is 4-0 with a 3.19 ERA in 12 starts this season after pitching the first month as a long reliever out of the Mariners’ bullpen.

“You come here and you perform and we’ll take care of you,” Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said. “I think it’s a nice reward for Wade, but he earned it. This is what he earned, and the ability to know where he’s going to be next year is something Wade hasn’t had a lot of opportunity to know in his career.”

LeBlanc has often received comparisons throughout the organization to another former Mariners lefty, Jamie Moyer.

Similarly, Moyer was a journeyman until landing with the Mariners in 1996 as a 33-year-old. He stayed for 11 seasons, winning 145 games.

LeBlanc has played for seven clubs but he first revitalized his career when the Mariners acquired him for part of the 2016 season from the Blue Jays and now again this year after pitching solely out of the bullpen in 2017 with the Pirates.

“This is tongue-in-cheek, but to a degree it’s a reason why we did this deal like this,” Dipoto said. “Jokingly to (LeBlanc’s agent) Joe Rosen and I said something to Wade about it, but we referenced it as the Jamie Moyer contingency clause.

“What Wade’s doing now, I don’t want to say in perpetuity because eventually everybody times out, but I don’t think his fastball is going to get harder or substantially slower. Who he is as a pitcher is very sustainable for a guy in his age range.”

So what does this mean for the trade deadline?

That July 31 date is fast approaching and the Mariners have been linked around the major leagues to various starting pitchers, including most recently left-hander Cole Hamels from the Rangers, Tigers left-hander and Eastside Catholic of Sammamish product Matthew Boyd and Blue Jays right-hander J.A. Happ.

Dipoto said LeBlanc’s does not change the Mariners’ approach entering the non-waiver trade deadline.

It just might not necessarily be a starting pitcher the Mariners look for. They’re also looking at bullpen options, even though they already added right-hander Alex Colome in a deal from the Tampa Bay Rays.

“If there’s an opportunity for us to expand or augment our pitching group, wherever that is, we are going to be attentive to that,” Dipoto said. “If there’s the ability to go out and find a guy we think takes some of the innings stress off of our starters in the second half or can give us that late punch in the back-end of the bullpen, then we’ll go that route. And if that opportunity doesn’t present itself, we probably won’t chase it.”

But back to LeBlanc.

He hasn’t spent too many of his 10 years in the major leagues amid much stability. Is he a starter? A reliever? Is he living in San Diego, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Japan or Pittsburgh?

Here’s how he put his career prognosis after that 2015 season overseas with the Saitama Seibu Lions in Japan’s professional league, when he went 2-5 with a 4.23 ERA in 44⅔ innings.

“Man, to be honest, I thought my career was over after Japan,” LeBlanc said.

“I was always kind of a nobody, but there you’re really a nobody because you kind of fall off the map. I was hanging on to the map by a thread and then I kind of fell off coming back from Japan.

“But you keep your nose down, you keep grinding and the Lord smiled on me and good things happened from there.”

Rosen was able to get him a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays with an invitation to spring training. He was assigned to their minor league camp and was later traded to the starter-depleted Mariners that 2016 season in exchange for cash and a player to be named later.

Now the lefty from Lake Charles, Louisiana, and the former second-round pick out of the University of Alabama has a home in Seattle.

He then went and pitched seven innings later Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Angels, allowed three hits, one run, retired the final 11 batters he faced and improved to 4-0.

Top pitching prospect out for season

In terms of high-level pitching prospects, the Seattle Mariners didn’t have much depth in their farm system as it was.

And now their highest-ranked pitcher, 19-year-old right-hander Sam Carlson, announced he will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery to repair his right elbow. He could miss much of the 2019 season as well.

Pitcher Sam Carlson, the Seattle Mariners' 2017 second-round draft pick, autographs baseballs before a June 2017 game in Seattle. Carlson, the team's top minor league pitching prospect, announced this week that he will need Tommy John surgery.(Photo: Ted S. Warren, AP)

The Mariners drafted the 6-foot-4 Carlson in the second round out of Burnsville, Minnesota, in last year’s draft. Typical recovery from Tommy John is 12-15 months to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament.

He’s considered the Mariners’ No. 3 overall prospect by Baseball America, just behind 2016 No. 1 pick, outfielder Kyle Lewis, and last year’s top draft pick, first baseman Evan White. Julio Rodriguez, a 17-year-old outfielder and international signee, and outfielder Braden Bishop round out the Mariners’ top five prospects.

So far in Carlson’s professional career he’s pitched three innings in two appearances with the Arizona Rookie League last season before being shut down with a sore elbow.

Carlson was committed to the University of Florida before signing with the Mariners on a $2 million bonus. He was considered by some in the industry to be one of the best prospects to ever come out of Minnesota, which includes the Twins’ Joe Mauer.

Carlson threw a sinking fastball that touched 96-mph in the Arizona Rookie League and consistently pitched between 91-95 mph with a mid-80s slider. Baseball America also lists Carlson as possessing the best changeup in the Mariners’ organization among their top tools list.

He was ranked as the No. 15 prospect in the 2017 draft class at the time by ESPN’s Keith Law.

Other pitchers in the Mariners’ top 10 organizational rankings include right-hander Max Povse (six), right-hander Matt Festa (seven) and righty Art Warren (eight). Povse appeared in three games in relief for the Mariners last season and is currently starting for Double-A Arkansas, along with Festa and Warren.

The Mariners selected right-hander Logan Gilbert out of Stetson University, the same school that the Mets’ Jacob deGrom and Indians’ Corey Kluber are from, with their No. 14 overall pick in last month’s draft.

Touted shortstop signed from DR

The Seattle Mariners on Monday signed nine players on the first day of the new international signing period, and the jewel of the haul being Noelvi Marte, who is ranked as the No. 4 overall prospect available by Baseball America.

Marte, a 16-year-old shortstop from the Dominican Republic, is 6-1 and 181 pounds and projects as a potential 25-30 homer bat. Scouts say he’s got good mechanics and athleticism, although some think he might outgrow shortstop as he matures. The deal, according to sources cited by MLB.com, is worth $1.5 million.

“Our scouts identified Noelvi Marte as a player with impact speed and power,” Tim Kissner, the Mariners’ director of international scouting, said in a press release issued by the team.

“Those skills, combined with his ability to hit, pushed him to the top of this international signing class. His makeup and instincts for the game are well above average, and we believe he will excel once he begins working with our player development group.”

“We’re very excited about the versatility of this group,” Kissner said. “It’s a well-balanced class of pitchers and position players who all possess the athleticism and the character to progress through our Minor League system. Each of the nine players we signed today has the skills and the makeup to make an impact in our organization over the next several years.”

Diaz honored again

For the second time this season, closer Edwin Diaz was selected as the American League Reliever of the Month for June.

Diaz, who also won the award in April, converted 12-of-13 save opportunities and posted a 1.88 ERA in 14 games. He struck out 20 in 14 1/3 innings while leading all AL relievers in saves for the month.

For the season, the Mariners closer leads the majors with 32 saves while averaging 14.5 strikeouts per nine innings.